Discovering our style - Who's in?

nkdrawings · 18 Nov 2019, 18:34

Mine is still in progress, but here's a sampling I have so far. Some things I've noticed: inky linework, "blotchy" watercolor (by which I suppose I mean that wet-on-wet effect), limited color palettes, and quirky/whimsical character design. I'd love any other observations (and am open to suggestions of other illustrators or pieces).

Artists featured here: Gris Grimly, Quentin Blake, Aurelie Blard-Quintard, Manka Kasha, Lee White, Lucia Stewart

StudioLooong · 18 Nov 2019, 22:22

I'm going to jump in on this! @eriberart I liked looking at your board because we pulled a few similar images/artists. Similarities that I am identifying with my board's images are:

Light, earthy, warm color schemes and lots of warm neutrals
Use of color is relatively flat but still has a little dimension implied
expressive use of line with a lot of energy
the drawing shows through (not painted over)
texture and detail are implied with mark-making but not realistically rendered
Characters all have strong shapes and expressions

I'd be interested to see what other people think. Right off the bat, looking at my work and looking at my dream board I see that I need to lighten and warm up my colors and push my line work to be more expressive. I think I should be a little less tight with my executions, focusing less on trying to model light and shadow and more on playing with shape, expression and texture.

eriberart · 19 Nov 2019, 09:45

@Miriam I don't think I have, I will have to check it out!

@StudioLooong Nice! I don't think I have much more to add to your analysis, but I do notice that there seem to be a lot more animal characters in your dream portfolio while in your own work there is more of a focus on human characters!
I really like your 'Ten in the Bed' piece. I think the linework is great and feels energetic and close to the vibe I get from your dream portfolio Your style of colouring feels more rendered and darker than your dream portfolio, it would be interesting to see you maybe try some watercolour style brushes under your line art. I think this would help give the traditional and loose feel that Emily Hughes, Freya Hartas etc have in their work.

NicolaSchofield · 19 Nov 2019, 22:53

@nkdrawings very nice selection of images. Maybe check out Daniel Miyares, his sketchy inks and watercolours are along these lines and beautiful. Though his published illustrations seem to be a lot tighter and orderly:

https://instagram.com/danielmiyaresdoodles?igshid=x6iqa62frekz

Also, I've totally painted that clock! (No elf though)

Heather Boyd · 27 Nov 2019, 22:53

Third instalment but there are definitely works in this one I absolutely love and I will work on those studies first. Some in smaller sections and others in full. Not a full 20 and not entirely children based like the woodsman at the bottom right but I have always loved this work since I first saw it (how the unknown artist shifted from blues very subtly) beautiful.

I also tried to focus on works with a story and collect a variety (more depth, grey scale, people, animals, buildings, interiors etc.) And focus reminder was I could make these in other mediums (specifically away from staring intently into a screen and getting a headache).

Top left to bottom right: Ciaran Duffy, Danelia Volpari, Benji Davies (love his videos for his books), Alex Smith, Unknown, Unknown, Gianluca Garofalo, Unknown, Matt Dixon (his robots melt me), Unknown, John Klassen, Franswazz (only work on hers I liked), Unknown.

Sorry for all the unknowns.
Though I started this 3rd process refreshed I have come to the conclusion that it's so tiring and I don't want to do it again anytime soon.

Thanks,

anya.macleod · 28 Nov 2019, 02:42

@nkdrawings I love these! These are all very similar to the pieces from my dream portfolio, specifically the inky outlines and blotchy watercolour, my goal is to replicate as closely as possible digitally

RG Spaulding · 28 Nov 2019, 05:51

Hey everyone, I am inspired by all of you posting your dream portfolio. So I have been working hard to come up with mine. I had to cut back on many images to be able to fit here at a decent size. I noticed that I tend to like illustrations with a strong sense of linework and images that are dreamy or have some element of magical, dreaminess in it. I also found that I like the lighting in the images. I tend to like colors (not necessarily limited colors). I am not sure if that is a trend these days to have limited color palettes. I also noticed that some of the artist's work I like have won the Caldecott medals(!)
I am not sure what my style is but I tend to draw more realistic (not stylized). I am not sure if that is negative. Maybe it is. Can you artists expand on my inferences or add more to it? Thank you so much.
Here is my dream portfolio.

Here is my current portfolio.

anya.macleod · 28 Nov 2019, 05:56

@RG-Spaulding I love the same kind of dreamy, magical images! Do you know the artist that did the piece with the boat and tiger?

RG Spaulding · 28 Nov 2019, 18:04

@anya-macleod That was done by John Rocco (book title is 'Camp Tiger').
The artist's name are as follows.
Top line: Aaron Becker, Don't know the artist of the house with ghosts, Sophie Blackall, John Rocco.
Next line: Aaron Becker
Bottom line: Fan Brothers, Eliza Wheeler, Dow Phumiruk, Aaron Becker

I also love art by David Weisner and Brian Floca. I guess I tend to lean towards magical realism if there is such a thing.

jsnzart · 7 Sept 2020, 03:31

I'm really liking this thread, as I've also watched Lee's course, and started the assignments.

Is this thread still alive? Did someone make a new one?
Did the pandemic stop everybody from moving on?
What happened?

Anyway, my dream portfolio is loaded with fantasy artists/illustrators like, Donato Giancola, James Gurney, Paul Bonner, Ralph Horsley, Jesper Ejsing, and moving closer to children's art with, Scott Gustafson, Jim Madsen, Cory Loftis, Peter de Seve, and one of my long time favourites Jack Davis. Can't forget Frank Frazetta, and Mort Drucker.

Piecing it together, and wondering if this is a good place to put it.

Ghadeer Nemer · 7 Sept 2020, 05:26

@Meta I am still discovering my style and this class is defiantly a must for me. I would love to see what you come up with. I will be taking the class after the basic classes I am enrolled in right now.

LauraA · 7 Sept 2020, 08:13

@jsnzart Sure, we can keep the thread alive! I am a big fan of keeping threads alive, especially ones that lots of people participate in, because it means we can find a lot of info in one place. I say this even though, when I do a WIP thread, I often find that I get more response if I start over I think it has a lot to do with what people see at the top of their feed, because some people have their feeds set to new threads only. I don't. I just scroll through the first couple of pages of active threads.

I also think this exercise is well-worth doing repeatedly, as our styles develop. Right now I'm thinking of doing one just for landscapes, because I did one landscape I really liked, but the style felt sort of half-baked and didn't quite go with my figures.

So, go ahead and post! I'll comment on it and I bet others will too!

jsnzart · 7 Sept 2020, 09:48

@LauraA Thanks. I agree, lots of good reads full of good info.

Shyam Sailus · 7 Sept 2020, 10:27

@jsnzart

PhoebeCreates · 8 Sept 2020, 10:39

Lee White's class was exactly what I was looking for when I was looking all over the internet searching for guidance to the question" how to develop my own style of art". It also helped me understand why everything I make look so vastly different from everything I like.

My first attempt at a "dream portfolio" a couple of months ago was not very successful. I had way too many pieces and couldn't decide which ones to eliminate. All the pieces I collected served very different purposes. They were also mostly from popular Instagram/Youtube artists who don't necessarily have published art or worked in the area I am interested in. Now that I feel like I have a better understanding of the kind of art I like, and have a slightly better understanding of the kind of industry I want to get into, I am ready to give this exercise a go again.

I have one question that I am not sure if anyone has asked before: Do we have to limit one piece per artist?

jsnzart · 8 Sept 2020, 12:50

@PhoebeCreates Cool. I think many artists/illustrators can relate to that. I can.

That's a good question.
I just checked that assignment file, and it doesn't say. Might have to watch the vids again, or someone might give us the answer soon. That happens here. It's a great community.

Heather Boyd · 8 Sept 2020, 16:20

@PhoebeCreates I think in the assignment one piece per artist but I have kept a few so that if I wanted to see how they drew something or solved something I could. @Norman-Morana did that.

PhoebeCreates · 9 Sept 2020, 11:21

@jsnzart glad we can relate! and thank you very much for trying to help. I think I'll go with @Heather-Boyd 's suggestion and include more than one art from an artist when it's necessary.

jsnzart · 9 Sept 2020, 11:58

@PhoebeCreates You're welcome. For sure! I've been doing that too, actually. It's not easy to choose.

ambiirae · 5 Oct 2020, 04:28

Hopefully it’s still okay to revive this thread! Watched the first video from Lees class and trying to do the dream portfolio assignment... this is really difficult. I am trying to stick with one piece from each artist but also how do you pick?? Like do y’all just select images you like or do you wait for ones you LOVE. Do far I’ve been picking ones I really really like or love which is making it challenging. How long did this project take for you?

Here’s what I have so far